The Travis Roy Foundation was established in 1997 to help spinal cord injury survivors and to fund research into a cure. Inspired by Travis' own story, the lifeblood of the Travis Roy Foundation has been the generosity of individuals, corporations and foundations across North America. This generosity has made an immediate impact on the lives of many individuals.
 
Since 1997 the Travis Roy Foundation has distributed more than $1.3 million in individual grants and to research projects and rehabilitation institutions across North America. The individual grant funds have been used to modify vans and to purchase wheelchairs, computers, ramps, shower chairs, and other adaptive equipment to help paraplegics and quadriplegics live their lives.
 
The Travis Roy Foundation is uniquely positioned to touch individual lives with its focus on providing adaptive equipment and sponsoring research. In the US alone, there are approximately 250,000 people currently living with a spinal cord injury and 13,000 new injuries each year. The Travis Roy Foundation could help many more deserving applicants if funds were available.

While growing up in Yarmouth, Maine, with strong odds working against him, Travis Roy always dreamed of playing Division I college hockey. At every level, each time the competition was raised a notch, Travis not only met the challenge but exceeded it.
 
On October 20, 1995, only eleven seconds into the first shift of his college hockey career at Boston University, Travis' dream was cut cruelly short when he shattered his fourth and fifth cervical vertebra, severely damaging his spinal cord. Travis Roy is now a quadriplegic, with no feeling below his shoulders and movement only in his right arm. With limited control of his right bicep, Travis is able to conduct simple yet key tasks such as operating the joystick of his wheelchair.
 
Travis has faced his disability with the same sense of optimism and determination that distinguished his hockey career. A May 2000 graduate of Boston University with a degree in public relations, he is a popular motivational speaker and is actively involved with the Foundation. In 1998, he published a book, Eleven Seconds, based on his life. In 2004, he made his debut as a television college hockey analyst with WMTW-TV8 in Portland, ME, and in 2005, he worked as a color analyst during ESPNU's national coverage of the 2005 NCAA D-I college hockey playoffs.
 
A strong and articulate spokesman for spinal cord injury survivors, Travis asked that a charitable fund be created in his name, focusing on helping others and on promoting research.